A GILDED NIGHT FOR FILM ABOUT TEEN’S JOURNEY

When Inocente Izucar stepped onto the Oscar stage Sunday, she carried with her countless dreams.

“I was there for all those voices that haven’t been heard,” she recalled Monday.

“I stood up there representing Latinos, people who have been homeless, immigrants, struggling artists. Being able to stand up for everybody else has been amazing for me,” said Izucar, whose life as an unauthorized immigrant and homeless child is the subject of “Inocente.”

Sunday night was surreal for her, from walking the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles to making her way up to the stage with filmmakers Sean Fine and his wife, Andrea Nix Fine, when “Inocente” won an Academy Award for best documentary short.

“Inocente” was the first Oscar winner to be funded by a social-media fundraising campaign — this one on Kickstarter — and it has benefited from buzz on Facebook and YouTube.

Izucar was 15 years old when the filming began. The 40-minute film chronicles her turbulent life and coming of age. She was homeless for nine years after her father was arrested for domestic violence and deported. She moved from school to school. She once talked her desperate mother out of jumping off the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and taking her children along with her.

Through it all, Izucar relied on her art to sustain her. She created big, brilliant and vivid images, painted in broad brushstrokes on canvas, sometimes with her bare hands.

“My life depends on me being an artist,” she said in the film.

Izucar came to the attention of the Fines through Matt D’Arrigo, the founder of ARTS: A Reason to Survive, a nonprofit program in National City that provides education and therapeutic activities to children facing crises such as homelessness and domestic violence. She had been attending the program since she was about 12. At first, she came weekly as part of visits with her school, then gradually she took public transit to the ARTS center every day.

The Fines contacted D’Arrigo because they were moved by the statistic that one in 45 children is homeless. They hoped to find a child through which they could tell a story about homelessness.

D’Arrigo immediately thought of Izucar.

He remembered that when she walked into the center for the first time, she had her face painted and wore a rainbow tutu. She was exactly the kind of person D’Arrigo had in mind when he established the program.

D’Arrigo grew emotional Monday as he discussed the Oscar win and Izucar.

“It shows the power of art and the power of mentorship,” he said. “Art is where you can let your secrets out. All of the kids carry their own struggles, and there is this unsaid feeling of acceptance and peer support.”

Izucar said she found a home of sorts at the center, the kind she had never experienced, a haven where she could create and be herself.

“My inspiration comes from trying to change my past in a positive way,” said Izucar, who is now 19 and living in San Diego. “I can never really change it, but I can change the way I see it.”

The Oscar win catapults the self-described shy artist into the international spotlight. Less than a day later, she had received many requests for her artistic work, college scholarship offers and invitations to participate in projects.

First on her plate, she said, is to continue her social advocacy by attending more screenings of the documentary and speaking about homelessness, arts and immigration. She also intends to do another art show in New York — she had one last year — and plans to choose a college in the coming year.

She hopes to inspire children by letting them know they, too, can find a way to achieve their dreams.

“My main message is to never give up — seeing all the things I went through and it eventually turned out OK. That is the main thing: It is going to be OK,” she said.

Since filming of the documentary wrapped up, Izucar’s life has expanded in new ways. Her family received legal residency status, said D’Arrigo, who pushed for the legalization process to be completed before the film’s release to protect the household. Izucar moved into her own apartment last year, which she now shares with her two adopted bunnies, and launched a website to sell her art.

She continues to work with D’Arrigo, who has helped her manage the requests she is receiving and preserve her legal rights to her artwork.

ARTS hosts about 4,000 children annually.

“For kids who are artistic and creative, art is their power,” D’Arrigo said. “Through art, they are finding their happiness and joy — and they probably can’t find it in other areas of their lives.”